With his arguably dashing good looks, TV executives were falling over themselves to snap him up as a presenter.

He stood his ground, though, preferring to remain on the comedy circuit, travelling the length and breadth of the country to do gigs.

These days, of course, we do know the 31-year-old as a presenter – but he remains adamant he will only do telly jobs with humour involved.

"I got offered loads of presenting jobs when I was young because of the way I look, I look like a boy band member," he explains to me.

"I turned them all down, even though it was good money, as I just wouldn’t have been able to live with myself just to be a TV presenter.

"I wanted to be a stand-up. I would never do something on telly that wasn’t comedy. When Mock the Week came along it was great as I was 26 and had been doing comedy for years and this was a comedy panel show as opposed to me interviewing bands or anything like that where you can’t be funny.

"Now Good News is back in March and I am doing two series of it this year. I never thought we would get 3.5million a week watching it, it was wild and great. I’m very appreciative to everyone who watched it and I am tremendously proud of it too as I worked very hard on it.

"I just wanted to do a daft show about the news that had a bit of heart to it with a bit of a story at the end that is genuinely lovely.

"As far as topical shows goes, it’s not me in a suit talking in a sneering voice."

Bristol-born, home these days is Leamington Spa, where his girlfriend is studying medicine at nearby Warwick.

"I get the best of both world," he tells me. "I work most of the time in London but then I come back home and can switch off and go for walks with my girlfriend and dog."

Prior to his UK arena tour, which sees him at the Metro Radio Arena on February 24 and 25, he did some warm-up gigs at a theatre in Norwich.

"It’s just to get it all in order, so it’s nice to do a 300-seater and put it all in the right shape and practise really," he says.

"You have to tailor your show to the room and to the city and it would be silly not to. Doing a gig in Newcastle, you know it is going to be a chattier crowd than most, so you have to engage them and have a laugh with them.

"It’s the best of both worlds as I really enjoy doing Good News on telly, but it is a lovely break to not do that and hit the road and just do live comedy again, which is my first love.

"I was talking to the theatre earlier and they told me comedians run the theatre. We all seem to sell out and then the theatre can put on plays and other things like that knowing that comedy will keep them afloat. It is that bizarre thing, it has just sort of exploded.

"I see a lot of my friends on telly, people that I used to play small gigs with a few years ago, we’re now all on the box, It’s kind of peculiar.

"Maybe it’s cyclical and it will all come to an end in five, 10 years time. You can’t put your finger on it. Michael McIntyre and Peter Kay were so popular that we all followed after those guys. It’s our time, as they say."